History

The History of Taiwan

Earliest Inhabitants

Taiwan's first inhabitants left no written records of their origins. Anthropological evidence suggests that Taiwan's indigenous peoples are from proto-Malayan ancestry. Their vocabulary and grammar belong to the Malayan-Polynesian family of modern day Indonesia, and they once shared many Indonesian customs such as tattooing, using identical names for father and son, gerontocracy, head-hunting, spirit worship, and indoor burials. Over 500 prehistoric sites in Taiwan, including many dwelling areas, tombs, and shell mounds, have provided more and seemingly contradictory clues to the origins of Taiwan's aborigines. The majority of prehistoric artifacts discovered so far, such as flat axes, red unpolished pottery, decorated bronze implements, and glass beads, suggest an Indonesian connection. However, other items, such as painted red pottery, red polished pottery, chipped stone knives, black pottery, stone halberds, pottery tripods, and bone arrowheads, suggest that Taiwan's earliest settlers might have come from the Chinese mainland. Many other questions remain unanswered. Were these prehistoric remains left by the ancestors of today's indigenous peoples? The question is a complex one, but many anthropologists have suggested that the remains discovered so far have no proven connection to the present indigenous cultures in Taiwan.

What is known for certain is that large tribes of indigenous peoples, plus many Han people from the Chinese mainland, were already living in Taiwan when Europeans first visited the island in 1590.

European Colonization

When Portuguese navigators first came upon Taiwan, they were struck by the tremendous beauty of its green mountains rising steeply of the blue-green waters of the Pacific. They named the island Ilha Formosa, or "beautiful island," a name by which the island has been known in the West for centuries after. Portuguese interest in the island was limited, for they left soon after establishing a settlement in the north.

The next group of Europeans to come to Taiwan were the Spanish and the Dutch. In 1622, the Dutch East India Company established a military base on the Pescadores Islands (Penghu ���). In the following year, they were forced out by the Chinese and moved to the much larger island of Taiwan where they established a colonial capital and ruled for the next 30 years. The Dutch strengthened their foothold by forcing a small Spanish settlement in northern Taiwan to leave the island.

Dutch rule increased the amount of land under cultivation by reorganizing Chinese villages and indigenous territories. Taiwan became a trading and transshipment center for goods between a number of areas, such as Japan, China, Batavia (now Jakarta), and Holland. Taiwan's exports to China included rice, sugar, rattan, deer hides, deer horns, and medicine. The island's imports from China included raw silk and silk textiles, porcelain, and medicine. Some products from China were again shipped either to Japan, Batavia, or Europe. Imports to Taiwan from Batavia included spices, amber, tin, lead, cotton, and opium, some of which was later traded to China. Before the Dutch arrived, the Chinese on Taiwan had enjoyed free trade with the Japanese without taxation. The Dutch subsequently established a tax on exports, which consisted mainly of deer hides and sugar. Taiwan proved to be one of the most profitable branches of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East, accounting for 26 percent of the company's world profits in 1649.

In addition to trade, Dutch missionaries were also active in converting Taiwan's population to Christianity. Protestant missionaries established schools where religion and the Dutch language were taught. By 1650, the Dutch had converted 5,900 of the island's inhabitants to Christianity.

Settlement by Han people in Taiwan dates back to the 12th century A.D., but large-scale immigration did not begin until the 17th century, during the period of Dutch administration. While the Dutch were colonizing Taiwan, China was going through a period of strife. In 1644, the Manchus invaded China and established the Ching dynasty. The struggle for control continued for several years in the south, affecting many people. At the same time, Japanese pirates repeatedly ravaged Chinese coastal towns. Consequently, thousands of people, especially from the coastal provinces of Fujian �֫� and Guangdong, migrated across the Taiwan Strait to Taiwan. In the 20 years from 1624 to 1644, more than 25,000 Chinese households--some 100,000 people--immigrated to Taiwan.

This mass migration to Taiwan changed the character of the island. Recognizing the urgent need for industrious farmers, the Dutch employed the new immigrants, providing them with oxen, seeds, and implements. Every new settler was promised an annual subsidy of cash and an ox. Because all land in these areas belonged to the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch were able to profit enormously from collecting heavy rents from the Chinese tenants. Although settlers petitioned to be allowed to buy and own the land they were tilling, so that they could pay taxes instead of rent, the Dutch rulers refused. Mistreatment by the colonial rulers and collection of a new poll tax increased tensions. In September 1652, frustrated Chinese farmers revolted against the Dutch. The rebellions were violently suppressed by the Dutch, who slaughtered nearly 6,000 peasants.

Cheng Cheng-kung and Defeat of the Dutch

As Manchu troops poured into northern China, many Ming loyalists escaped southwards, where they resisted the foreign invasion for over 20 years. One of the most celebrated resistance fighters was Cheng Cheng-kung �G���\, also known as Koxinga ��m��. Son of the pirate Cheng Chi-lung �G���s and his Japanese mistress, Cheng made Taiwan his base to restore the Ming dynasty. Forcing the Dutch out in 1662, he established a capital at Anping �w�� (present-day Tainan). Dutch control over parts of Taiwan had lasted for 38 years.

Cheng Cheng-kung set up schools for the young, introduced Chinese laws and customs, and built the first Confucian temple in Taiwan. During his rule, a steady stream of Chinese continued to arrive in Taiwan and settlements sprang up in increasing numbers along the west coast. Agriculture developed primarily on the southern portion of the island. Industry consisted of refining sugar, tile manufacturing, and salt production. Trade, which had begun under the Dutch, continued with neighboring areas, such as the Philippines, Japan, and Okinawa.

Ching Rule Over the Island

Cheng's son and grandson ruled Taiwan for 20 years before surrendering control of the island to the Manchus in 1683, following military defeat. Taiwan was then ruled by the Manchus for the next 200 years.

Under Ching rule, agriculture expanded northward and increasing numbers of Chinese left the mainland to settle on the island, despite laws forbidding emigration. Camphor, a major cash crop, became a cause of conflict between the new arrivals and the indigenous peoples. Bamboo, rice, and tea were cultivated for the first time.

Four ports in Taiwan were forcibly opened to foreign trade following the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858. Foreign interest in the island made the Ching court realize Taiwan's importance as a gateway to the seven provinces along China's southeastern coast. Consequently, through the 1870s and 1880s, a number of progressive and ambitious Ching officials sent to Taiwan succeeded in strengthening defenses, exploiting coal, and constructing telegraph lines between central and southern Taiwan, as well as with Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait. In 1885, the Ching dynasty made Taiwan its 22nd province.

Japanese Colonization

Achievements by the Ching administration were disrupted when Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. When Japanese troops formally entered Taipei on June 6 of that year, armed resistance broke out. By the time resistance was broken in October, over 7,000 Chinese soldiers had been killed and civilian casualties numbered in the thousands.

Unlike the Dutch, who in the 17th century colonized Taiwan more for immediate commercial gains, the Japanese at the start of the 20th century gave priority to establishing effective political control over the island. Thus, the Japanese policeman, rather than the Protestant missionary of Dutch times, became the most important tool in the exercise of colonial aims.

During its 50-year rule of Taiwan, Japan developed programs designed to supply the Japanese empire with agricultural products, create demand for Japanese industrial products, and provide living space for emigrants from an increasingly overpopulated home country. In short, Japan was intent on building an industrial homeland and an agricultural Taiwan.

The period of Japanese colonization can be roughly divided into three periods. The first, from 1895 to 1918, involved establishing administrative mechanisms and militarily suppressing armed resistance by local Chinese and indigenous peoples. During this period, the Japanese introduced strict police controls, carried out a thorough land survey, standardized measurements and currencies, monopolized the manufacture and sale of important products (such as salt, sugar, and pineapple), began collecting census data, and made an ethnological study of the island's indigenous peoples.

During the second period from 1918 to 1937, Japan consolidated its hold over Taiwan. Compulsory Japanese education and cultural assimilation were emphasized, while economic development was promoted to transform the island into a secure stepping stone from which Japan could launch its southward aggression.

The third period, which started in 1937 and lasted until 1945, entailed the naturalization of Taiwan residents as Japanese. The Chinese on Taiwan were forced to adopt Japanese names, wear Japanese-style clothing, eat Japanese food, and observe Japanese religious rites. Chinese dialects and customs were effectively discouraged. Heavy industry and foreign trade was strongly emphasized during this period, coinciding with the Second World War.

Japanese development of its Taiwan colony was extensive in areas such as railroads, agricultural research and development, public health, banking, education and literacy, cooperatives, and business.

Transportation Infrastructure: Recognizing the importance of transportation to Taiwan's economy, the colonial rulers constructed 2,857 miles of railroad lines, modernized harbors, and built 2,500 miles of highways.

Irrigation and Agriculture: Irrigation was considered the key to further developing Taiwan's agriculture, which was plagued by uneven rainfall. Concrete dams, reservoirs, and large aqueducts formed an extensive irrigation project that brought thousands of acres of poor farmland into production. Arable land for rice production increased by more than 74 percent and sugar cane, by 30 percent. The enormous increase in sugar cane production is considered to be one of the most spectacular achievements of Japanese colonization. Over a period of 30 years (1905-1935) the area planted in sugar cane increased 500 percent and output skyrocketed. By 1939, Taiwan was the world's seventh largest sugar producer.

Industry: The Japanese policy of an agricultural Taiwan and industrial Japan did not call for significant development of Taiwan's industry. Factories during the period were small--95 percent had fewer than 30 workers. Finally, during World War II, military necessity led the Japanese to develop in Taiwan strategic industries, including aluminum, chemicals, oil refining, metals, and shipbuilding. Around 90 percent of Taiwan's foreign trade was with Japan, mostly agricultural.

Hydroelectric Power: Heavy rainfall and swift mountain streams on the island made hydroelectric power attractive to colonial administrators. In the 1930s, a large-scale project utilizing Sun Moon Lake ���� and the Choshui River �B����, greatly increased electric power, thus boosting aluminum, chemical, and steel alloy production.

Despite the Japanese success in transforming Taiwan into a society that, economically, was rather modern in comparison with its neighbors, resistance against alien rule never ceased on the island. One of the largest revolts, the Tapani Incident �G�a�D�ƥ� of 1915, resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 Taiwanese. Liberation from colonial rule would only come with the total defeat of Japan in 1945.